Film Assignment: Helvetica

One of the concepts they brought up in the movie was the idea that what makes font is not the actual font but the negative space around it. That negative space or the background, as one of the typographers stated when he was being interviewed was what kept and rooted the font in place. The negative space provides context just like the background of photo or an establishing shot. The background is what creates the setting and without that background you lose the context and importance of the subject.

The main question they addressed in the film was, where did Helvetica come from? What was fascinating about this question is that it's a question no one ever asks or wonders and as we find out in the film is that the procedure for making a font is complex. In many ways, creating a font to fit all these different aspects like; if its clear, legible, straightforward, along with other factors, is just as complex as creating a film or making a sculpture just on a much smaller scale. There is no real way of what the font should look like just like there is no limit to what could be considered a font. The same can be said for every kind of art like film and photography.

Although the range is limitless the creative process of actually making the font is unique. How they explained it in the film is that they would start with the letter “h” because the structure of that letter can than be transferred to other letters like “r” and “n”. From there they would try with the letter “o” and see if that curve of the “o” compliments the horseshoe curve on the “h” than include the “p” and look at it as the word, “hop”. The process of starting small and working big is unique and this process is not used in other forms of media like film or photography as you usually start with a big idea than narrow it down from there.